THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 127 



met with the disease, but perhaps that is owing to the peat and sand, whicli is, I 

 believe, the general staple of the soil at Ascot. Perhaps, on examination, you may 

 be able to determine the nature of the disease, and suggest some remedy. This 

 disease seems to affect R. ericoides in most of the gardens in the neighbourhood of 

 Canterbury. A line in your notice to correspondents on the [subject would oblige, 

 J. J. [All the Eetinosporas have behaved badly on our heavy lo;im at Stoke New- 

 irgton. We made a bank expressly to plant out a lot of the choicest conifers of 

 small growth, and in three years it became unsightly, and we destroyed it ; that was 

 owing chiefly to the decay of these pretty little trees. In all our travels we have 

 not yet seen a plantation of them doing well. The cause appears to lie in a certain 

 tenderness of constitution ; severe frost ruptures the tissues, and soon afterwards 

 they become a prey to fungus. "While they are under strict nursery treatment they 

 appear to do well, but they are apparently unable to rough it when planted out, and 

 left very much to themselves. Their colouis and characters are so peculiar that 

 their frequent failure is especially a matter for regret. 



The Christmas Rose. — S. C. P.— It is but little we can add to the advices 

 given at page 4, but we will try. We first call to mind that at Stoke Newington 

 there are a few plantations that are grown expressly to cut flowers from for Covent 

 Garden Market. All these are in the stiff loam or clay common to the district, and 

 the very best plantation of all is shaded by tall trees. Let us speak of this best 

 lot first. The plants have been where they now stand about fifteen years, and the 

 attention tbey have consists in an annual mulching with rotten dung early in the 

 spring, and hand-glasses placed over them about the end of November to help on 

 the flowers, and preserve them unsullied for the market. We have seen hundreds 

 of them gathered before Christmas, and they look like miniature water-lilies. 

 There is another way of treating them that deserves notice. They are divided into 

 small pieces in March, and planted in rich soil one foot apart every way, and well 

 supplied with water all the summer. A shady situation is certainly to be preferred, 

 but an open quarter in the full sun will not be detrimental to them if the ground is 

 deep and rich, and the watering is never neglected. In September the strongest 

 are taken up and potted in as small pots as they can be got into, and are left exposed 

 to all weathers until the end of October. They are then introduced to the coolest 

 part of a forcing-house, and it is found that they do very well on the floor under 

 the stage or bed, requiring but little light. Here they soon begin to flower, and 

 when all the flowers are cut they are taken back to the pit, and are planted out in 

 April, and are not forced the next season, but allowed to bloom naturally, and after 

 the flowering is over, they are parted and planted out as before. The second season 

 another lot is taken up from the original bed, and in this way with one and two 

 year old plants the flowers are obtained abundantly every winter. In this district 

 the common Christmas rose {Hellehorus niger) never blooms till the end of February 

 or beginning of March, unless forced or assisted with hand-glasses. The following 

 are fine species : — S. olymjpicus, S. atrorubens, H. colcliicus, and S. orientalis 

 formosa. All these may be obtained of Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son, St, 

 John's Wood. 



Vegetable Mabkows. — C. JP. — The large growing kinds are objectionable ; at 

 all events they are not fit for a gentleman's table. The best kind undoubtedly is 

 Hibberd's Prolific, which Messrs. Barr and Sugden are now ofi"ering seed of at a 

 shilling a packet. This produces an abundance of small fruits immediately after 

 being planted out, and has the full flavour of the best of marrows if cut when the 

 size of a turkey's egg. Three or four of them make a most elegant side dish. To 

 grow marrows well sow in March or April, and put the pans on a hot-bed or on a flue. 

 When the plants have three or four rough leaves each, pot them singly or in pa^'rs, 

 and treat tliem to a warm place until the middle of May, and then put them in 

 frames. At the end of May or first week in June plant out on a bed prepared for 

 them. The best way to prepare the bed is to take out the soil a foot deep from a 

 four-feet breadth, which may be as long as you please. Lay the soil up on each 

 side in a ridge. Fill the four-feet bed with two feet depth of half rotten dung. It 

 must not be rotted to powder, such as we use for potting, and it must 

 not be long, rank, and hot, such as we call "gi-een." But if half-rotten, such as 

 we should use for dressing grass land, and for digging in amongst i-oses, it will 

 ferment in the bed, and cause a steady bottom-heat. Having made a bed two feet 

 deep of this good stufi", return the soil that was taken out, spreading it over the 



